On Saturday, AVOW along with several representatives of other organisations, attended the High Sheriff of Clwyd Community Awards 2024 Ceremony
The awards enable the High Sheriff to recognise a small number of the volunteers and organisations within the Counties of Conwy, Denbishshire, Flintshire and Wrexham that make up the historic and ceremonial area of Clwyd. The event was an opportunity to applaud and celebrate their incredible dedication and hard work. The event itself was held in Brynkinalt Hall, which’ boasts over a thousand years of history’ according to their website.
“I hope that by sharing some of their stories, we will encourage and inspire others to give volunteering a go as well.” – Kate Hill-Trevor, High Sheriff of Clwyd, 2023/2024
AVOW had the great pleasure and privilege to be the lead County Voluntary Council (CVC) in the preserved County of Clwyd for processing nominations for the High Sheriff of Clwyd’s Community Awards this year. Dawn Roberts-McCabe, Chief Officer of AVOW was keen to record their grateful thanks to their fellow CVC’s in Conwy (CVSC), Denbighshire (DVSC), and Flintshire (FLVC) for their assistance and support with the arrangements.
“The High Sheriff’s Awards provide an opportunity to recognise extraordinary individual and charitable groups for the incredible work they do on behalf of their communities” – Dawn Roberts-McCabe, Chief Officer of AVOW.
The recipients from Wrexham that received awards this year are:
In The Community Service Awards Category
- Caroline Richards ‘In recognition of her work transforming the lives of young people through music.
- Hywel Williams ‘in recognition of over 15 years volunteering to support the annual Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
- Marford and Gresford Luncheon and Caffi Group ‘In recognition of their dedicated work to support older members of their communities’
- From Flintshire, Stephen Jones, ‘In Recognition of his work to support and promote disability sport in Flintshire and beyond’, which includes Wrexham.
In the High Sheriff’s Special Awards Category
- Anna Buckley received an award ‘in recognition of her tireless work to support refugees and victims of the war in Ukraine’
- Sion Edwards and Nicholas James received an award ‘In recognition of their inspirational work with young people at The Venture Youth Inclusion Project.
- AVOW Young Influencers received an award ‘In recognition of their work to support the young people of Wrexham’.
High Sheriff’s Personal Awards Category:
- WeMindTheGap received an award ‘In recognition of their work developing programmes to empower, inspire and support young local people’.
- Wrexham Litter Pickers received an award ‘In Recognition of their commitment to keeping local areas free from litter and building stronger community spirit’.
AVOW are very proud of their Young Influencers.
Young Influencers are people between 14 and 25 who oversee youth led, and youth focused grants. They made the newspapers in December for using this ability to grant more money to a project seeking to help homeless young people over winter.
AVOW’s Young Influencers attended the High Sheriff of Clwyd’s Community Awards on Saturday and collected the High Sheriff’s Special Award for service to the community. The Young Influencers were recognised for their work supporting the young people of Wrexham. Ani (Volunteer Chair of the Young Influencers), Arty, Mckenzie and Ffion were there on the night to receive the award on behalf of the AVOW Young Influencers.
“We are so proud of all their hard work and efforts, they really are a wonderful group of young people, who volunteer their time to make other young people’s lives better.” – Katherine Prince, Development Manager for Volunteering, Community and Finance (AVOW)
During the event the High Sheriff announced recipient of the Crimebeat North Wales Project of the Year in Clwyd. The High Sheriff said that they had thoroughly enjoyed visiting some of the projects funded by these grants which can have a powerful impact, empowering our local young people to develop an idea to make their community a safer place to live and enhancing social cohesion.
This year’s recipient of the Crimebeat Project of the Year was Rhyl Youth Boxing Club, in recognition of the outstanding work supporting young people in Rhyl.
“Thank you to everyone who nominated candidates for this year’s awards. As always the panel and I had to make difficult decisions, but I am delighted to welcome those here to Brynkinalt today as the chosen winners from across a wide range of voluntary and community activities and to be able to add my personal thanks to them all.
Together we can make a difference” – Kate Hill-Trevor, High Sheriff of Clwyd 2023/2024
English (UK)